Midweek Revisit to Diveagar, Raigad fort, Mahableshwar

. This is a discussion on Midweek Revisit to Diveagar, Raigad fort, Mahableshwar within The Voyage Junction. Part of The Rev Zone category; It was tuesday , I found that three important employees were absent on duty.It was like undeclared strike without any ...

It was tuesday , I found that three important employees were absent on duty.It was like undeclared strike without any purpose.It was impossible to carry on the new work without them. I finished theobligatory work and suddenly I thought of joining the strike and I told my wife and children to occupy their seats in my MANZA. I called up the owner cum manager of a guest house at Diveagar and told him that we will like to have seafood for dinner.He said that everything is available.

My wife and son asked me ,"where are we going"? .I said the plan is to visit Diveagar beach (situated on arabic sea shore , Dist-Raigad, MH) They were shocked to hear that as no luggage was packed and the trip was totally unexpected.I asked them to seat inside the car.And I went inside the home and gathered all liftable items in my armspan for eg.clothes, tees, shorts, induction stove, blankets , and thrown them in the boot of Manza.No time was wasted in packing the things in bags properly. Somehow my wife convinced me to alow her to alight and bring utensils and food preparation items for my 2 and 1/2 year old daughter.

For the manza , it was not a surprise , as she is always prepared and equipped for unscheduled long drives , courtsey, her caretaker TAI.During pretakeoff iddling I remembered about money, again went inside the home, grabbed handfull of notes and put approx.half of them in the glovebox and remaining half underneath the body mat.finally left the parking slot at 5 pm.

From Pune ,we reached the kapurhol HP fuel outlet, filled up the diesel tank up to the brim.
Following route was taken- NH4 up to kapurhol -Bhor -varandha ghat-Mahad-Mangaon-Mhasala-Diveagar.

Pune to Kapurhol stretch (30 km)is a part of the NH4, then kapurholhol to Mahad is
approx 85 km is a poorly maintained state highway , last 45 km is a ghat section. The ghat begins with the back water of the huge Nira-Devghar dam accompanying you on LHS within few feet distance from the egde of the road.The backwater accompanies the road for a distance of 25km approx. and on RHS there are forest covering tall Sayhadri mountains.

By mistake if the car leaves the bituminous stretch and enters on the left side of the road then the valley filled up with backwater is just a meter away ready to swallow the car.I was happy to complete the stretch before sunset. Everyone was happy to closely see the backwater through the window till I told them that it is more than 100 feet deep.

We had tea at a tea vendor's handcart situated at the top of the ghat and then reached Mahad (Taluka place situated on Mumbai -Goa highway) at approx.8 pm.I called up the guest house owner and asked him to suggest me a safer route from Mahad.
He asked me to come via Mangaon -Mhasala(taluka places) to diveagar route(approx 65 km) as alternate route i.e. goregaon -mhasala is lonely and bad road.

too be continued...

Last edited by Tornado; 23rd December 2012 at 02:44 AM.
Reason: Add info.

Nice start. I was in Panchgani a few years back and I used to enjoy the weather in Mahabaleshwar/panchgani especially during monsoon. I used to ride on my Bajaj Kawasaky Aspire then. Beautiful memories. Did you visit Panchgani ?

We reached Mhasala , I again called up the guest house owner to know the dinner menu, To my horror , he said that he is unable to serve the food as it is 9:30 pm now,and they do not serve food after 8:00 pm.I fired him verbally for not informing me the same at 8 pm, then he agreed to serve the food including spices free sea food for children.

We reached at the Nazir guest house at 10 pm .It was fresh and delicious Surmai. Everybody slept by 12 midnight.I went to they beach. It was a pleasurable moment to listen to the sea waves and feet at the junction of warm sea water and the land and nothing was visible around except the moon and glistening edges of the flattening sea waves. After half an hr. I went back to the the room.

At the time of sunrise ,we all woke up and reached the beach along with tooth brush, water bottle and some cash. Enjoyed inside the water, and on the wet and dry sand.

We found baby crabs coming out of their holes.I took snaps of them and their leg marks on the sand.Birds were quick to eat the baby crabs leaving behind the claw marks on the wet sand.

We had tea and boiled Modaks(prepared from rice flour and fresh coconut + sugar)
served by a local hawker on the beach.

We had fried eggs and poha at the guest housefor breakfast.
It is very essential to order the meals 3 to 4 hr .prior to food time at eateries if you want to enjoy local konkani aroma. It is unlikely to get the food at eleventh hr.

We had lunch at Patil khanawal (eatery) fish thali and veg thali was delicious.

We wanted to visit Janjira marine fort by boat, so went to Dighi, 15km.approx.byroad .But we were disappointed to know that the last boat had left the Dighi port at 4 pm ,
and their phone lines were also not working so as to enquire prior hand.

We came back to Diveagar and visited the famous Gold Ganesh mandir .The Gold Ganesh idol is now replaced by its photo.(Burglars had killed two watchmen and looted the more than 1 kg gold idol some time back, police cracked the case but idol was broken and melted by then.)

It is not possible to take the car on beach sand as hurdles are placed on the way to beach so as to prevent the car entry.Before we reach the beach we have to walk through the dense green Kevda jungle.The whole 5 to 6 km long beach is lined by the kevda plants on the east side . Diveagar is also famous for Supari Baugs, and its processing season was at peak.

Evening and next morning was enjoyed again at the beach, We left for our next destination the capital of erstwhile Maratha king Shivaji.

Attached Images

Last edited by Akash; 25th December 2012 at 09:56 AM.
Reason: Pics re-uploaded.

Dear HR, cn , sorry for the inconvenience. I have requested the mods to rotate the pics.

Since it was my revisit to Diveagar , it is worth comparing it with last visit.
Last time, I had visited Diveagar at weekend. All hotels/accomodations were nearly fully prebooked , I had to face hard time to find a room. We reached there at 8 pm and got room at Pinakin resort. Rooms were good for the cost (Rs 1200/day) but the lady managing the resort and kitchen was little uncooperative.

She tried to serve Sode(dried -processed prawns) pretending that it was fresh prawns, but I caught the fraud.

This time the room (Nazir) was ok for the cost(Rs 700/day).

Last time , Gold Ganesh idol was in situ.It was really looking glorious and auspicious.

@ankx, yes ,you said it correctly.And now whole Sahyadri mountain range is declared as a world heritage.

The Raigad forte , approx.75 km from Diveagar .We reached there at 3 pm.There is a Ropeway transit facility made available by govt.
But two school trip students were awaiting already.It was 5 pm by the time our turn came.
.It is awesome experience of 4 minutes by rope way to climb which otherwise takes hrs by feet .Last time I visited when I was in 4th std.

We saw , palace built by the king for his wives, his darbar(judiciary cum office).The guide boy(Rs 50} showed us that the air flow system was such that a plaintiff standing near entry gate could be heard by the king seating hundred meters away from it without need to shout at all..
We also saw the lake built and underground food storage system for water and food supply which was enough for months togather if it is stopped from bellow by enemy.
The market built by the king is at such height that the military men need not get down from horses for the purpose of shopping so that they remain always ready for emergency situations .Present civic authorities must learn from him.
After almost hundred years of king's natural death,the ammunition storage building was set ablaze by British leading to fire for continous13 days which burnt whole fauna and flora and roofs of the all building s on the fort. , But the quality of remaining structre (stone ) is so high that it still inspires the tourists. By this time it was dark , we decided to stay at a near by taluka place rather than mtdc resort on forte as kids were intrested in eating non veg food which is not allowed on the forte.

We stayed at Mahad Visava resort, rooms were really nice for the cost 2k/day.Next day we headed toward Mahabaleshwar hill station via Poladpur .Total distance is 60 km from Mahad (located on Mumbai-Goahighway) to Mahabaleshwar is out of which 40 km is lush green Ghat section.I always like this side of Mahabaleshwar than the Pune side due to non commercialization and monkeys greeting the kids most of the time and numerous virgin valley views.

We reached Mahabaleshwar , done some shopping (caps , hand bags) There very few good veg , nonveg eating places in Mahabaleshwar city. We done lunch at Punjabi hotel on Pune road.Food quality and taste was good.

Later at Venna Lake , we done some horse riding and paddle boating.

Later on we went to monkey point. Kids enjoy,ed feeding monkeys and we enjoyed beutiful scenery . Famous Mahabaleshwar ' strawberry with cream ice cream' is a not be missed thing.

Whenever I visit Mahabaleshwar , I prefer to visit only one or two spots.Because hurriedly visiting most of the points doesn't allow us to enjoy the nature properly.
In the late evening , we again went to market , purchased some wool en clothes , strawberries, etc.and left for Pune.120 km .

Overall car experience was pleasurable, especially my wife found lot of comfort on rear
seat watching movies
FE 17 kmpl , most of the time AC on andy most of the route was Ghat section.
I am trying to post some pics of Mahabaleshwar.